Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-12-21
RUSSIAN IGNORANCE.
The Low Grades of Intelligence POSSESSED
by the Czar's Subjects.

by the Czar's Subjects.
In st. Petersburg there are thousands Of
drosky (carriagel drivers, writes q CORE.
spondent Of the New York Sun, and I am
told that not one in twenty can read the
signs along the streets, and not two in
dve hundred can read book or news
paper. And yet these men have had, for
Russia, extraordinary opportunities.
What. then, must be the condition Of the
| people in the country-those who have not
| had contact with the worldf
The proportion of these ignorant people
TO the intelligent and educated is about 60
per cent. OF the 10000, 900 population in
Russia about 60, ,000, 900 were either among
the serfs freed by Alexander III. quarter
| Of a century ago or are the offspring of
those white slaves. They do not know
] what a school is, and have learned more
abject manners than our black folks. /
have never encountered so much obse-
quiousness anywhere. Not only do the
working people perpetrate upon the visitor
all sorts of salaams, but merchants and
people in the upper classes have the in.
lection. and bow and blink till a white
freeman must blush.
Iexpected to find the Russians fierce
looking people. They are the very oppo-
site. Fierceness must be accompanied by
a degree of mental substance. The aver
age Russian one meets in the streets or in
the country is of medium size. He is OF
light yellow tan color, from exposure to
weather and existence upon coarse food.
Generally he wears a full beard, and four
times out of five it is light in color and
very filthy. His hair is about two inches
thick is cut as if the work was done with
q meat axe or a circular saw, and besides
being combed down in front is slightly
parted in the middle, as though he were
not sure whether he is male or female.
He invariably wears high-topped boots,
and his trousers are tucked into the boot.
tops. The boot-tops have series of
finely artistic wrinkles midway, and
are generally well oiled. This is the
only tasteful indication in the dress.
The coat of a peasant is cross
between a robe, a frock and a blouse. 1t
comes almost to the knees, is single-
breasted, and has a wide belt. IL the SUBJ
ject is a driver he wears a robe and belt,
and the garment is of blue cloth and
comes to the ground. The headwear is q
broad cap with a low crown.
The Russian is as filthy as he is igno-
rant and unsightly. Only three or four Of
the principal hotels have any preparations
for bathing, and these are extremely
meager. The Russian bath in Russia is a
take very ordinary bath in the principal
hotel to-day. Not one place in five has a
bath, and as the waters of the Neva are
too cold for swimming baths, the people,
as a mass. shed their filth like fish scales.
And since dried fish, oil and cured vege-
tables form the staple diet for a majority
of the people, and the Neva, which fur
nishes the water supply, can be de.
tected miles distant by the nos
trils, it is only the cold atmosphere
that prevents long mortuary lists.
Robbery is very common in all Russia.
Looking out on street here one sees hun.
dreds and hundreds of men, women and
children walking or driving with barred
heads and making crosses at every shrine.
The drivers are continually at it. Only
the wicked gendarme deigns to pass with
out notice. The steps leading to the hun.
dreds of churches are covered with peo-
pie of all grades on their knees making
crosses and humping their foreheads on
the stones or pavements. The candles at
the shrines are kept burning continually,
at the expense of the empire, and almost
every other store or shop has a large dis
play of glittering brass and paint in the
form of shrines. And yet there is more
crime here and more ignorance than in
any other civilized country.